CINCINNATI – Proposed additions to the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium are a step closer to reality following the release of new renderings and floor plans for the Nippert Stadium Renovation & Expansion, director of athletics Whit Babcock announced Thursday.

Construction on the $86-millon, privately funded project, is scheduled to begin in mid-December 2013 and be completed in August of 2015.

“As we promised back in June we wanted to share with the Bearcat Family the exciting progress being made in the stadium design,” Babcock said. “As these renderings demonstrate, Nippert Stadium will add another signature facility in the heart of our beautiful campus. There will be some more tweaks and changes regarding design in the coming months. These renderings are close to final but still conceptual at this point.”

The expanded renovation focuses on both the east and west side of the stadium and will increase the stadium’s capacity to approximately 40,000. On the west side, a new press box structure will be built, adding suites, scholarship club seats and loge boxes/patio suites. The west concourse will also be renovated, including concession stands and restrooms. Changes on the east side include expanded concessions and restroom offerings, including the building of skywalks to connect the upper deck with the gameday plaza on O’Varsity Way.

The new west-side structure would be approximately one and one-half stories taller than the current press box and approximately 130 yards long. The curvature of the facility would match that of the upper deck on the east side of the stadium and contain four levels; a press and operations level, suite level, scholarship club level, and patio suites mezzanine level.

The allotment of founders’ suites was sold out during the silent phase of the campaign however premium seating options in the Scholarship Club Seats are still available to all fans. All Scholarship Club Seat donors who place 10% down payment paid in full by Dec. 2, 2013 will be eligible to personally select seating locations in the new premium areas of Nippert Stadium as early as January, 2014. For more information, please see http://www.gobearcats.com/nippert.

Design work for the project is ongoing and final renderings, including projected concepts for the east side changes, will be released as they become available.

Patrons interested in seating in the Scholarship Club should contact the UCATS office at 877-55-UCATS.

Entering its 112th season, Nippert Stadium is the venerable home of the University of Cincinnati football team and provides the Bearcats with one of the best home-field environments in college football.

USA Today recently named Nippert as the best home-field venue in the former BIG EAST Conference and ESPN's Scott Van Pelt cited Nippert as a ‘one of the gems of college football.’

Construction began on Nippert Stadium in 1915 and was completed in 1924. UC has used the Nippert site as a playing field since 1901, making it the second-oldest playing site in the nation for college football behind Penn's Franklin Field (1895).

Nippert Stadium’s current press box was built in 1992 and since that time, approximately 72 of the 76 BCS schools have made major renovations to their football stadiums or premium seating areas.

UC will play the 2014 season downtown at Paul Brown Stadium and return to NIppert for the 2015 season, the 100th anniversary of original construction on the facility.

Working in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati Office of Planning, Design and Construction, the Architect of Record for the project is Heery International. Heery’s sports facilities specialists have completed more than 220 stadium and arena projects worth more than $3 billion. Heery’s broad sports portfolio includes colleges and universities of all sizes for whom the firm has completed arenas, team facilities, tennis and soccer stadiums, natatoriums and practice fields and arenas. Among the firm’s clients are Big Ten, MAC, ACC, SEC, Big 12, Pac 12 and Big East conference teams. Signature sports facilities in Heery’s portfolio include Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium (University of Texas), Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (University of Arkansas), the 1996 Olympic Stadium/Turner Field and the Georgia Dome.

Architecture Research Office will serve as the design architect. Architecture Research Office (ARO) is the New York City firm whose work includes projects at the University of Michigan, Brown University and Princeton University.

The construction manager will be Turner Construction Company, a North America-based, international company, whose work includes projects at the University of Florida, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.